Pixar announces movies on dinosaurs and “the human mind”

Yesterday at the D23 Expo in California Disney/Pixar announced they were making two new films, and the good news is that they aren’t sequels, and one involves dinosaurs.

The dinosaur movie, set for release on November 27, 2013, will be directed by Bob Peterson (Up! co-director) and asks the question – “What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?” I’m sold already.

The second movie, set for release on May 30, 2014, will be directed by Pete Docter (Monsters Inc., Up!) and “takes audiences on incredible journeys into extraordinary worlds: from the darkest depths of the ocean to the top of the tepui mountains in South America; from the fictional metropolis of Monstropolis to a futuristic fantasy of outer space. The inventive new film will take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind.”

These sound like great additions to the Pixar slate and a return to form after whoring themselves out for Cars 2 merchandise. We’re already getting a new movie in June 2012 called Brave, which is set in the mystical Scottish Highlands and will feature the first female protagonist in a Pixar film. The company is also working on Monsters Inc. prequel Monsters University for 2013, which follows the origins of Mike and Sully’s relationship all the way back to their time at the University of Fear.